This is the end of the preview. Sign up
to
access the rest of the document.

Unformatted text preview: Astronomy 210 Spring 2011 Homework Set #5 Due in class: Friday, March 4 Total Points: 50 1. A Newly Discovered Planet . The NASA Kepler mission is an orbiting telescope designed to find planets around other stars (exoplanets) and right now is in the midst of making revolutionary discoveries. In January 2011, Kepler announced a new planet, known as Kepler-10b (10=10th star for which Kepler has a confirmed planet, b=first planet found around this star). The host star of Kepler-10b is almost exactly identical to the Sun, with a similar radius and surface temperature, and identical luminosity. So for the purposes of this problem, assume the host star is exactly identical to the Sun. (a) [5 points] Kepler-10b is found to have an orbital period of just 0.837 days! Calculate the semimajor axis of Kepler-10b, in AU and in meters. Compare your answer to the semimajor axes of Mercury, and to the radius of Kepler-10bs host star, and comment. (b) [5 points] Kepler-10b is found to have a mass M = 4 . 6 M , and a radius R = 1 . 4 R , where =Earth. Find the average density of Kepler-10b in kg / m 3 . What do you conclude about the composition of Kepler-10b?...
View Full
Document